Unheralded

CHEF JEFF: One Byte At A Time — Pasta Fagioli

Pasta Fagioli has been a favorite of mine ever since I came across a recipe for it in a Dom DeLuise cookbook several years ago. The recipe was pretty basic, containing only pasta, tomato sauce, garlic and beans. The other day, I came across a recipe on social media for pasta fagioli that looked pretty good. I saved the recipe …


Unheralded

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — The Family Gulbranson Piano

It is coming up on three years now since my beloved Mom died. Long before then, she and I were collaborating on an essay about the family piano — and because I think it is a darned good story, I am finally getting around to writing it. The Gulbranson piano was purchased by my great-aunt, Dora, who was a registered nurse. …


PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot The Rapids — Bird By Bird

It’s been a tough week. It’s been hard to watch the dismantling of democracy, the corruption unfolding or being ignored as guardrails are dismantled and justice denied. The graft and lies, the rejection of science and endangerment of our health and the loss of national security as we alienate allies, side with bullies, advocate ethnic cleansing and confirm incompetence, ignoring …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — An Open Letter To N.D. Legislators And Others Who Care About People Living With Disabilities

February 4, 2025 Mary Anderson, ED ABLE Inc. 1951 1st Street West Dickinson, ND 58601 Dear Mary, Thank you for contacting me regarding ABLE’s purchase of the Sullivan Apartments, in which my daughter, Rachel, has lived and thrived for many years now. I applaud ABLE for taking action to secure this, and other buildings in western ND, including The Landing …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Tom Robbins Is Dead; Dang

But Tom Robbins lived a long time. He was 92 when he died Sunday. Still … I wish he’d written just one more book. I could never get enough of him. I never met Tom Robbins. But I came close. It was long ago, back in 1990 or ‘91, when I was North Dakota’s tourism director. My phone rang one …

PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot The Rapids — Choices Have Consequences

I often joke that I am the healthiest unhealthy person I know. I have many chronic conditions, including diabetes, asthma and glaucoma. But thanks to research done by the National Institutes of Health, I have medications that, at 61, have me at the healthiest I’ve been in years. If you don’t think the cuts to NIH impact you and you …

RUSS HONS: Photo Gallery — University of North Dakota Vs. Colorado College

Ben Strinden, Andrew Strathmann and Carter Wilkie (empty net) scored goals and netminder T.J. Semptimphelter stopped 24 of 25 shots as No. 16-ranked University of North Dakota men’s hockey team defeated Colorado College 3-1 in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Tigers (14-13-1 overall, 8-9-1 NCHC) topped the Fighting Hawks (14-11-2 overall, 9-6-1 NCHC) …

PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot The Rapids — Don’t Be Silent

I keep wondering if I am living some type of dystopian nightmare, and then I look at the news and see that this administration is prioritizing the refugee resettlement of WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS, and I know in fact it is not a nightmare but a waking brutal reality of white supremacy and Christian Nationalism. As someone who cut her teeth …

TIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — The Next Production Of Our Play, ‘I’m Proud Of You,’ And A Friend In A Starring Role

I’m delighted to announce that our play, “I’m Proud of You,” will be produced for the fourth time beginning March 22 at the Open Stage theatre in Harrisburg, Pa. In Harrisburg, playing the role of television’s Fred Rogers, will be my close friend, Michael David Gingerich. It is an inspired casting decision with great personal meaning.  I met Michael and …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Prairie Public

I read with dismay the reports that a Fargo legislator has introduced a bill in the 2025 North Dakota legislative session to zero out funding for Prairie Public. I have been listening to Prairie Public Radio and watching programs on Prairie Public TV since the day it launched, when I was a young and broke college student in western North …

PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot The Rapids — Musk Presents Threat To Our Country

In 1988, I had the incredible opportunity to travel around the world. I studied in Zimbabwe, built houses in Malawi, worked at a leprosy hospital in India and became embedded with anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, even smuggling documents for the ANC back to Zimbabwe. As I think back to that time now, as the U.S. is being turned upside …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Monday Morning Musings

 A few years ago, Lillian and her sister and her niece took a long trip to England, about three weeks, I think. About two weeks in, I was folding laundry one morning, and when I was done, I looked down and noticed the laundry was all mine. Not a single thing of hers.  A wave of loneliness swept over me. …

CHEF JEFF: One Byte At A Time — Spaghetti Puttanesca

Spaghetti Puttanesca has always fascinated me. It has many ingredients that I use in my spaghetti sauce. And several that are not. One of those I don’t use, anchovies, has always had a bad connotation in my mind. I remember a joke from my childhood when some of us talked about what toppings a pizza should have. Someone would always …

PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot The Rapids — God Help Us

I don’t want to get out of bed this morning. I wanna pull the covers over my head and pretend like this dystopian nightmare does not exist. I don’t want to hear the latest news that tears down yet another brick as democracy collapses around me. But that isn’t an option. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Silence in the face of …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — My Knoepfla Recipe

Saute chopped onions (until the onions are soft) and shredded carrots in a little butter. Add small pieces of chicken. Cook a bit, but don’t overcook. Add chicken broth. (I prefer Penzey’s concentrated chicken broth.) Simmer. Add a dash of lemon juice, a few grinds of pepper, parsley and a little bit of tomato paste (for umami). Maybe a little …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Elkhorn Ranch

From the Dana Monroe Wright Collection at the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Dana Monroe Wright was born on Aug. 30, 1878, in Eaton Rapids, Mich. He moved with his parents to farm near Jamestown, N.D., in 1882, and left that area in 1898 to enlist in the North Dakota National Guard. Wright served in the military during the …

PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot The Rapids — Perverting God’s Word

On Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on Wednesday evening, Vice President JD Vance described what he called an “old-school, very Christian concept.” “You love your family, then you love your neighbor, then you love your community, then you love you fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world. …

JIM THIELMAN: We Love Bob Dylan Because He’d Never Get Past HR

Bob Dylan was having none of it as he rode with my colleague’s uncle from the Iron Range back to the University of Minnesota one Sunday night in 1959. “Bobby, don’t you think you should go to class once in a while?” Dylan’s concerned classmate asked. As we all learned after watching the Oscar-nominated Dylan biopic  “A Complete Unknown,” Bobby, …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Today’s Music I’ve Been Listening

Cat Stevens and Eddie Vedder 2016 And the late great B.B. King (who grew up in the same area in Mississippi as my late father). If you are in the Indianola area, I highly recommend a visit to the B.B. King Museum. And because I was young in the 1970s, there is always the epic Eagles “Hotel California.” Yes, I have watched the …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — More Music, This Time My Daughter, Chelsea Sorenson … And A Little Linda Ronstadt clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axVmpvz6VcQ Chelsea Sorenson, Senior Solo for Vocal Performance Degree at Dickinson State University, 2009 (above). Shot by me, her proud mother (the little coughs are her twin sister sitting next to me in Dorothy Stickney Auditorium). And this is why I describe Chelsea as a bit of a “piano snob” — I’ve known she had perfect pitch since she was …

TIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — The Past Is Never Just About The Past

This past week was a very long and eventful one in American history, punctuated by, among many other things, the emphatic gestures of Elon Musk to his audience on Inauguration Day. Great passions ensued. Were those Nazi salutes that Musk threw out to an adoring throng? It sure seemed that way to me, but only he knows for sure. In …

CHEF JEFF: One Byte At A Time — Broccoli, Rice, Cheese and Chicken Casserole

You can’t go wrong with a casserole that contains cheese. That’s what I thought after viewing this recipe recently on a Facebook friend’s news feed. I had all the ingredients on hand except for the sour cream, so it was a no-brainer. The only substitution was six Gray (Hungarian) Partridge breasts in pl the chicken. I couldn’t have been more …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — On The Hill Of Murdered Scout, St. Peter’s Spring

On finding an old map in the State Historical Society of North Dakota Archives: Somewhere near the Turtle Mountains. By the La Butte Mark, by the “Half Breed Road”. On the Des Lac River. East of the La Roche. Northeast of Strawberry Island on the Missouri River. North of the Little Knife River. North of the White Earth River. North …

TIM MADIGAN: Anything Mentionable — Kindness In The Current Age

“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” — Fred Rogers “In the end, only kindness matters.” — Jewel There have been times in the past few weeks when the words of Jewel and my friend, Fred, have seemed hopelessly …

PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot The Rapids — This Is Not Politics

On Tuesday, at a prayer service for the Inauguration of Donald Trump, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde preached the sermon of her life, directly pleading for the president to show mercy to those who are being impacted by this administration’s policies. She did so respectfully, thoughtfully and lovingly. And biblically. She spoke truth to power. As a pastor, I was deeply …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — The Crook Siblings Gather For Meatloaf

(Above) Wayne Thomas, son of Mozelle Ellis Thomas, and Garland Crook, son of Lena Bell Ellis Crook, 8 months old, Friendship, Miss., 1925. Lena Bell and Mozelle were sisters. Garland and Wayne were their first babies. Sarah, Thomas, Lillian and Beckie, January 2025 Golly it was fun to have the four of us together for a meal. Jim tolerated us …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — ‘The Future Of The Common People’

A little while ago, I inherited a collection of North Dakota History magazines from some really old — well, older than me  — neighbors who moved away to assisted living and had to disperse a lot of things they had collected over the years. Some date back to as early as 1973. I already have a bunch of older ones, …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — Twenty-Five Years Ago

Twenty-five years ago, it was the beginning of a new millennium. When I thought you read books. When I thought you didn’t watch much television. When I thought you hiked. When I thought you watched the stars. When I thought you liked poetry. When I slept on the ground. Before social media. When I was young. Twenty-five years ago I …

LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman — My Dad’s And Mom’s 8mm Films From The 1950s And 1960s

And that’s all folks, that’s the last of the 8mm films my Dad shot in the 1950s and 1960s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ae3Gu33SQo&t=1s My mother bought the 8mm camera and a projector by saving Green Stamps. Remember those? Here are my mother’s annotations. The film is not in chronological order. I don’t care. Don’t watch if the fact that this stuff is out …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — Focus On Education

My friend, Darrell Dorgan, is comfortably ensconced in his condo in south Florida, spending his days walking his dog, Coco, on the beach, but as a lifelong newsman in North Dakota, he’s keeping up with the news back home in Bismarck. He spent some time this past week digging into what’s going on in the North Dakota Legislature and sent …